The State of Autonomous Fundraising Report

The State of Autonomous Fundraising 2026 is Version2.ai's annual benchmark on impact that fundraising's staffing crisis has on the donor capacity gap — built from 250+ live Virtual Engagement Officer deployments and an independent survey of more than 1,000 advancement leaders.

WHAT'S INSIDE

Autonomous Fundraising benchmark built on actual deployment data, not projections

Fundraising's Donor Capacity Gap, Quantified

How many donors in a typical advancement office are unassigned today, and what that gap has cost fundraising teams for years.

Data from 250+ VEOs

ROI timelines, retention lift, and gift-upgrade patterns pulled directly from live Virtual Engagement Officer portfolios.

Proof Points from the Field

Bucknell, MUSC Foundation, San Diego State, La Salle, William & Mary, and Technical College of the Lowcountry, in their own numbers and their own words.

Independent Survey of 1,000+ Leaders

Where advancement offices actually stand on AI adoption today, and what's genuinely holding Autonomous Fundraising back from going mainstream.

What Comes Next

More VEO portfolios per institution, planned giving discovery at scale, and where autonomous AI fundraising is headed from here.